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Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

minnesotareformer.com

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Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#431

Post by sbarre »

jancsika wrote: post #405
NullInvictus wrote: post #310

You have to have been raised pretty sweetly to not have known this kind of racketeering was a 'thing' for a very long time. Pressure to hire cops is rampant. 'rent-a-cop' is not aimed at the fact that security companies apply aggressive mimicry to their people, but that these people are themselves often off-duty cops. Security companies are strongly "encouraged" to hire off-duty cops, and find themselves left out to…

> have undue control of local government and politics Now, some facts: In North Carolina at least, the Council-Manager form of government provides that the police chief is hired/fired by the city manager-- who is hired/fired by and reports directly to the city council. Depending on the city's charter, the manager may hire/fire the police chief with or without approval of the council. Apparently there are a few city c…

And yet, stories like this one are not uncommon:

https://www.propublica.org/article/homicide-detective-st-lou...

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#432

Post by dathinab »

mattmaroon wrote: post #332
ensignavenger wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would record that conversation and send it to the FBI, and if that didn't get any traction, the Press.

Yeah, I mean, nobody knows how to skirt the law better than cops, and they of course never exactly phrase it in such a way as to be extortion. It’s bullshit, and I’ve talk to people from all over the country and I think it’s pretty pervasive. But my business relies on permits that they sign, and it just feels like I could probably spend a lot of time and money and ruin myself fighting it, over what is really a relati…

> exactly phrase it in such a way as to be extortion

extortion is unrelated of the exact words used but the intend

that clever phrasing can make you avoid extortion charges or similar is a common misbelive

if a cop gets away with a clear extortionist behavior it's because the prosecutor lets them and uses formulation as a shallow excuse not because clever formulations protect you from the law

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#433

Post by pard68 »

NullInvictus wrote: post #310

You have to have been raised pretty sweetly to not have known this kind of racketeering was a 'thing' for a very long time. Pressure to hire cops is rampant. 'rent-a-cop' is not aimed at the fact that security companies apply aggressive mimicry to their people, but that these people are themselves often off-duty cops. Security companies are strongly "encouraged" to hire off-duty cops, and find themselves left out to…

You have a citation for your interpretation of "rent-a-cop"? I am intrigued but cannot find any use of the phrase other than something to the effect of "wannabe cop". Even the 1987 movie by that name is a former cop who works private security (fair warning I have never heard of the movie until reading the wiki summary a few minutes ago).

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#435

Post by dathinab »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #86
jzb wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The DOJ has to start actually doing its job and completely dissolving these corrupt police departments and rebuilding them" Not trivial, considering a substantial percentage of elected officials are dead-set against allowing the DOJ to actually fight this kind of thing. They only approve of law and order when the law and/or order is pointed at very specific types of criminals or protests.

It's corruption all the way up.

down, up is where it started I would say

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#436

Post by constantly »

lobf wrote: post #410
mcpackieh wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're [deliberately?] misinterpreting the stated intent of the law. A gun that goes off when dropped is substantially less safe than a gun which doesn't. People who buy guns are in fact justified in considering such factors. I think there's a real case to be made that the Californian law is duplicitous and is actually intended to reduce the availability of handguns in California, but that's not the point being raise…

We shouldn’t be doing anything to increase the number of guns in circulation. It reduces safety for everyone, especially the gun owners.

Whatever your ideology it seems a little craven to not want guns that happen to be out in circulation to be as safe as possible from incidents like misfires from accidental dropping.

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#437

Post by bryans »

lobf wrote: post #409
greyface- wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harm reduction is a component of public safety.

If your interest is harm reduction, then you should be focused on reducing the number of handguns in circulation. You should also consider looking in to the data about what actually happens to your chances of being shot once you buy a gun. It’s pretty stunning.

When it comes to drug abuse, harm reduction can mean providing clean needles and other supplies to the user. The person isn't going to stop just because they're denied clean supplies. In the same way that you can't stop people from acquiring guns, but you can help prevent them from purchasing guns that are fundamentally unsafe to operate.

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#438

Post by anigbrowl »

arthurofbabylon wrote: post #175

Already, police do this exact shakedown on cities. There are numerous incidents (anecdotal) of US police threatening city officials to reduce enforcement during election cycles, demanding increases in police force budget. Broadly, the US needs to eliminate corruption. There are many broken feedback loops right now from the grand (lobbying and campaign finance) to the minuscule (niche price fixing, bribery, police-ran…

The genius of American political life is in defining problems out of existence with ever more complex legal and rhetorical terminology, while working overtime on training people to affirm that they are the freest country in the world.

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#439

Post by aldebran »

Man I used to tell family in India that the US is better despite corruption because the corruption was at very high levels. Companies paying to pass bills that benefit them. That as a citizen you didn’t see it daily. I even used examples of how cops in India do this sort of thing. How naive of me…

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#440

Post by eastbound »

mardifoufs wrote: post #336
droopyEyelids wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefighter arson is a relatively well known phenomenon. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fires-set-by-firefigh... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefighter_arson

I'm curious, how do they actually figure out who is behind a forest fire? Or even suspect that it was a criminal act in the first place. Finding who is behind a burnt house is one thing, but a whole forest is a lot of terrain to cover for proof!

I’ve always wondered, even in criminal cases, even here in France. Do they pin it on someone? Crime is prone to be pinned onto someone, it calms the populations, and it doesn’t matter whether he did it because he’s in jail, so of course he’s angry.

I personally know someone whose lawyer asked him for a large sum in cash in the 7 minutes before a trial, in the antichamber of the court.

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